Google's AlphaGo to compete against top Chinese Go player

Ke Jie, the world's top Go player, speaks at a press conference in Beijing on April 10, 2017. [photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo will compete with China's best Go players, including Ke Jie, Google announced in Beijing on Monday.

The Future of Go Summit in Wuzhen, organized by the China Go Association, Sports Bureau of Zhejiang Province and Google, will be held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, between May 23 and 27.

Ke Jie, ranking first in the world, is going to play a three-round showdown against AlphaGo, as well as other top players in China.

"It's my honor to be chosen as the representative of human beings to play against AlphaGo. I will do my best to win the game," said Ke Jie.

"I believe AI will bring good to people's lives in various aspects in the future," Ke added.

The Google-developed AI system, which is capable of playing Go against human players, gained worldwide fame when it scored a landmark 4-1 victory over South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol in a five-round showdown in March 2016.

According to a previous announcement by Google's Deepmind machine-learning team, the secret player on two Chinese online board-game platforms competing against several of the world's best Go players was AlphaGo. As of January 4, when the test was completed, AlphaGo had racked up 60 wins and no losses.

Ke Jie was one of the losers.

After AlphaGo revealed its identity, the 19-year-old said on his Weibo: "If I were not in hospital, I would have used the one last move I prepared for a week... It's a little shame."

Originating in ancient China, Go is a game where two players take turns placing black and white stones on a 19-by-19 grid. Players win by taking control of the most territory on the board, which is achieved by surrounding opponent's pieces with their own.